Torque and Tumblers
by EevyLynn
Summary: It may not quite be all about the tumblers. Written for the Nealfire Gift Exchange.


**This is my gift for capricornicis for Nealfire Gift Exchange.**

 **This is a bunny that's been in my head for a while now, and the prompt gave me the perfect excuse to use. :D I hope you like it! (Sorry, it's late!)**

"It's all about the tumblers," Neal said as he wiggled one pick around before twisting with the other causing an audible "tick".

Henry wrinkled his nose in confusion as he looked down at his father who was reaching around the door to lock it again. "What does that even mean?" he asked.

Neal looked up from his kneeling position in front of the door, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times. He leaned back onto his heels, biting his lips as he thought of how to word it.

"Ok, so most locks have a...mechanism that locks or unlocks when you put a key in them. The parts that are inside this mechanism is what are called pins and tumblers. With this pick," Neal held up the longer thinner pick, "you scrape along the top, pushing the pins one after the other to move the tumblers. With this one, which is called a tension wrench," he lifted up the shorter thicker one, "you slip it in and put pressure on the bottom of the lock to trick the mechanism into...I guess you could say 'thinking' that the lock is full."as Henry nodded in understanding as he reached over to grab the two picks from his father's hands, "Thin pick scrapes the top. Thick tension wrench puts pressure on the bottom. Got it."

Neal smiled as he reached into his pocket and grabbed two paper clips. He held them up for Henry to see.

"What are those for?" Henry asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Well, sometimes you'll be in a situation where you don't have fancy picks on you, so you have to learn to improvise," Neal responded with a grin as he moved the hand holding the paper clips for emphasis.

Henry grinned back as he watched his father straighten each paper clip before crooking each at the end. Neal then turned and showed him the similarities and differences to using plain wire versus the lock picking tools.

He was just telling Henry about a couple of other methods when they heard, "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Neal looked over Henry's shoulder to see his father coming around the corner of his shop with an amused look on his face. Stopping a few feet from the boy, he raised an eyebrow as he looked from his son to his grandson and back.

"If you really needed to get into my shop, you could have just asked for the key," he said with a smirk.

Neal rolled his eyes as he stood up. "It's not like that," he responded.

"Mmm hmmm," Rumple nodded with a smug smile on his face.

"Dad was teaching me how to pick locks," Henry piped up happily.

Rumple looked slightly surprised as he continued to look between the two, once again raising his eyebrow as he caught his son's eye.

"I figured it would be good for him to learn just in case the time comes around that he needs to," Neal said defensively.

Rumple raised his hands in response, "I wasn't saying anything against it. I actually think this is a wonderful idea."

"You do?" Neal said questioningly.

"Indeed," Rumple responded smiling slightly.

Henry quickly chimed in, "Yeah, Grandpa Gold knows how to pick locks, too, Dad. He was the one who picked the lock to your apartment when we went find you."

"Is that right?" Neal asked, raising an eyebrow to his father.

"As I was saying, it is a useful skill that you never know when you'll need it."

Henry smiled, "Dad was telling me about how it's all about the tumblers."

Rumple crinkled his brow slightly as he looked at his son. "Is that so?"

"Yup," Henry said innocently.

"Well, Henry. I'll have to disagree with your father on that one."

"What?" Neal exclaimed, looking at his father.

"You see Henry," Rumple began, ignoring his son, "it's actually all about torque of the tension wrench. It doesn't matter what you do with the tumblers if you don't set and hold the right about of torque."

"Whoa, whoa," Neal said stepping between them waving his hands in the air. "Moving the tumblers is much more important than the torque. Most of the time, very little pressure is even needed."

"Most of the time, yes, but you still need to be able to tell when it's time to use more pressure," Rumple said.

"So, you agree, that most of the time, the tumblers are more important than your precious torque?"

"No, I said no such thing. Don't put words in my mouth, son."

Henry just stood there watching the two of them go, his head going back and forth like he was watching a tennis match.

What none of them noticed was that as they argued, their voices were growing loud enough to gain a fair amount of attention from others on main street.

David, who had been having breakfast over at Granny's when he got a call that had been directed from the sheriff's station, quickly made his way over to the pawn shop. As he neared, he could hear raised voices from Rumplestiltskin and Neal who were standing just outside the front door, with Henry kneeling behind them facing the door.

"Torque!"

"Tumblers!"

"What's going on here?" he asked cautiously as three pairs of identical brown eyes turned to look at him.

Taking note that his other grandfather was there, Henry then turned back towards the door.

Neal and Rumplestiltskin on the other hand quickly tried telling David what was going on. It was rather difficult to understand them seeing as they were trying to talk over the other. From what he did actually hear, David quickly gathered what was going on, and didn't exactly approve.

Raising his hands to try to calm them down long enough for him to speak, he said, "Ok, calm down. So you're both trying to teach Henry how to pick locks?"

"Yes," the two other men said together.

"Look, I'm glad you are trying to spend time with him and all, but is this really necessary to teach a twelve year old boy? I thought we were trying to teach him to be good, not a thief! You're supposed to be good examples."

Rumplestiltskin snorted as Neal scoffed, "You realize Emma knows how to pick locks too right?"

David scowled at him and responded, "Yes. I'm also aware that you were the one to teach her that."

Neal nodded and said, "Yes, I was. In fact, Emma actually agreed that it would be a good idea to teach him this, and since I was the one that taught her, we felt it would be better if I taught him as well."

"Why would he possibly need to be taught this in the first place?"

"Considering how often things seem to go straight to hell, it'd be a damn useful skill for him to have under his belt," Neal pointed out.

At David's scowl, Rumple added, "What if he needs to break in somewhere to reach a person who's locked up? What if he's the one locked up? Wouldn't you feel better knowing he would have a better chance at escaping should some villain come into town and kidnap him or something?"

David opened his mouth to respond suddenly Henry's voice rang out.

"Hey, guys?" he said loudly. The three men turned to see Henry kneeling in front of the slightly opened door. "I figured it out."


End file.
